Tramping: Turret Ridge

The life of a postgrad student can be hectic at times.  Over the past few weeks I've been juggling my work at MInT, finishing a manuscript, editing the methods section of my thesis, working on the intervention, whooping a nasty bout of strep throat and mentally keeping it all together after receiving my divorce paperwork.  There are days where I just want nothing more than to sit down with a family member or friend who is a 30-hour flight away, but instead I have to be happy with Facebook chats and Skype dates.

A few weeks ago, a buddy asked me to co-lead a trip during the Tramping Club's annual weekend in Paradise.  I figured some time away from work would be good for renewing my enthusiasm for finishing all the things that need to be done and I wanted to get more comfortable leading a group on a hike so that I could lead a group solo in the future.

Nearly 100 students from the University of Otago Tramping Club gathered for a weekend of hiking, drinking and worm wrestling.

Here's some of the scenery from the campground:

Saturday was our big hike to Turret Ridge.  We did some walking through a forest to the bushline and then up some scree to the top.

The views from start to finish were amazing!  Here's our team taking a quick break...

Photo credit: Jaz Morris

The Sylvan Lake campground is down there somewhere...

My team of seven hiked to/from Turret Ridge in a bit over 6 hours.  I was nervous about running out of water because my water bottle had been lost in the shuffle of packing/unpacking the van.  Luckily, the team was great at sharing the water they had.

That's the Dart River in the photo above.  The photo below is one of my favorite pics taken of me!

Photo credit: Jaz Morris

I was like a kid in a candy store running around to see everything up at the top!  

I particularly loved the view of this glacier (can you see the little waterfall?)...

Another view of Lake Wakatipu - so amazing!

Here's our team!...

Photo credit: Jaz Morris

Turret Ridge was rated a moderate hike and I feel very confident that I could lead a small group on a similar trip.  

View of the Dart River on the way back to Glenorchy...

There's another Tramping Club trip in a few weeks.  I really, really need to reach some milestones if I want to go (getting the manuscript and methods chapter done, for example).  If that doesn't pan out then I'm hoping I can go to Lake Tekapo with a friend around Easter.